Category: winslow

Below is a newspaper clipping from the Brighton Gazette advertising the opening of Winslow’s last church he held a pastorate at in Brighton, UK.

Coincidentally, it was on August 20… my birthday.

Winslow kicked up quite a bit of dust during this occasion due to the fact that he invited the Rev. John Knapp, an Anglican, to preach during the dedication service. In those days, any ministers of the Church of England were absolutely forbidden to preach in dissenting (churches not of the Church of England) churches.

A brief excerpt from a letter written by Octavius to his congregation at Warwick Street Baptist Church in 1852 after becoming ill while on vacation. I believe this brief paragraph best sums up his ministry and hearts desire in all he wrote and preached, to make little of himself and much of his King:

It has been the distinctive aim, and the sincere desire of my ministry amongst you, to make known and to endear the Saviour to your hearts. . . . And may I, as from a languid couch, still press the Saviour‘s claims to your regard? Oh, how worthy is he of your most exalted conceptions,—of your most implicit confidence,—of your most self-denying service,—of your most fervent love. When he could give you no more—and the fathomless depths of his love, and the boundless resources of his grace, would not be satisfied by giving you less—he gave you himself. Robed in your nature, laden with your curse, oppressed with your sorrows, wounded for your transgressions, and slain for your sins, he gave his entire self for you. . . . You cannot in your drafts upon Christ‘s fullness be too coveteous, nor in your expectations of supply be too extravagant. You may fail, as, alas! the most of us do, in making too little of Christ,—you cannot fail, in making too much of him.

I have to admit that it is a small fantasy of mine that I often wish I could go back in time and sit down with Octavius and his mother Mary to have a cup of tea and chat about heavenly things and the pilgrim way. Sadly, it just isn’t going to happen.

While reading through Life in Jesus last night, however, I stumbled across the most peculiar of entries by Mary entitled “Godly Sincerity”. It’s form is unlike any other entry made by Mary’s pen and it brought such a rush of enjoyment to my own soul as I read it that I just had to share it with the readers here.

For 30 seconds I could have been back in time some 160 years and sitting with Mary as she gave me practical and Godly advice.

It is written in the book as one paragraph, but for simplicity sake, I’m going to arrange it here in a bullet format. I have not edited it in any way or removed words or sentences. What you read is exactly as it was written.

If ever there were a chance to peek inside the soul of a long departed Godly saint such as Mary to see what made them tick, this is indeed it.

If you would like to read it for yourself, click here and shuffle over to page 175.

Below is a letter written by Mary Winslow in 1816 to her oldest child in Bermuda during a season of most troublesome suffering for her.

I chose to post this because one of my favorite bands, Indelible Grace, recorded a version of a John Newton hymn detailed in this very letter.

I was excited to stumble upon this letter as I have always loved this song personally:

“Your dear mother is under the chastening hand of God. My dear suffering infant lies a corpse: and the letter containing the intelligence of your dear father’s and my beloved husband’s death, was this day put into my hands. I am humbled under the mighty hand of God. My soul is bowed down. The death of my child was almost overwhelming; but the death of my dear, my precious, my ever-to-be-lamented husband, is the heaviest affliction I have ever met with. I trust the Lord will yet enable me to say, Thy will, O God, not mine, be done! I wish you could have been there. Oh, that you had been in time to have closed his eyes! I need comfort. I am in a strange place. The Lord help me and increase my faith! The Lord have mercy upon me, for I am in trouble. I trust his soul and the dear departed spirit of my infant are now rejoicing together in glory. That is my only comfort. I am too much afflicted to write more. May God bless you, my child, prays your truly afflicted, widowed mother.”

Below you will find an excerept from the first chapter of Life in Jesus, a collection of memoir and journal entries written by Mary Winslow and later compiled by her son Octavius into book format.

I wanted to post this little excerpt that you might learn of the early providential hand of grace given to this family early on. It is a true blessing indeed to see how a Father’s gracious dealings can lead to such a harvest of blessing later in life after trial and suffering may take place.

I stumbled upon this wonderful little excerpt from a new book of Winslow’s that was previously unknown by me. Entitled Christian Experience, it is another compilation of the writings and journal entries of Mary Winslow, mother to Octavius.

This, as far as I can tell, is now the third published book from Winslow that focus solely on his mother’s writings. Sadly (and most frustrating of all) none exist from Octavius himself.

In 1870, Winlsow was ordained into the Church of England and to this day, absolutely no information survives on not only why he chose to do so, but there is no historical documentation from this momentous day either. There is, however, this touching little letter written by Mary’s hand to her son on this most solemn day.

Holy Counsels on the Eve of Ordination

Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee.—I Tim. iv. 16

Tomorrow you are to be examined. I have lifted up my heart in prayer that, if it is not the Lord’s will you should enter upon the all-important work of the ministry of the everlasting Gospel, He would hedge up your way; but, if it is,”that He would carry you through, qualifying you for the glorious work, and greatly blessing you in it; enabling you to fulfil the great, the awful responsibility that will rest upon you, remembering the account you are to render at the great day when He shall summon the world to judgment. Oh that you may aim so to serve and honour Him as then to hear the blessed words: “Well done, good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things; enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.” Remember Solomon’s petition; God answered it, and gave him more than he asked for. You, too, will need wisdom and great grace. If He gives this He will also add all else that is truly needful. If you desire to be a useful minister you must be a close student of your Bible, avoiding all reading and society calculated to deaden your spirituality and draw your thoughts and heart from your work.

If it is a work God has called you to, think how needful to let everything else go but that; giving all your mind, and all your heart, and all your attention to that work. And what a work! To win souls to Christ, to watch over them when they are won: to follow, to restore, to rebuke with all long suffering patience, and to feed Christ’s sheep and lambs. And with what food will you feed them? The Chief Shepherd must give it to you out of His own Word, and this must be studied with much prayer, taking it yourself first, feeding upon Christ, and thus setting Him forth as the Bread of Life. Preach Jesus and Him crucified. If you study closely and prayerfully your precious Bible, you will not want other men’s sermons. God’s own Word, through the teaching of the Eternal Spirit, being in you as a well of water springing up. Precious Jesus! What a mercy to know, and what a privilege to have communion with Thee! Angels might envy a poor heart-broken sinner at the feet of Jesus: His loving eye and His gracious heart bent upon such an one.

In gearing myself up to begin researching the needed books and resources I will need to assemble the future book on Winslow, I am begining to see that there will need to be an entire chapter (if not an entire book) layed aside for the topic of suffering and pain in the life of the believer. Winslow penned many a sentence on this topic and the more I have read him and the more I review his own historical biography, I am starting to see that he himself was a man well versed in this subject.

But Winslow, I see, thought about this topic aright. He knew of it’s sanctifying powers and it’s ability to bring us more intimately in touch with the life and communion of our Lord. After all, the Lord Jesus was indeed a man of “constant sorrow” and led much of His ministerial life in some form of pain, suffering, or trial. In order to form us into the likeness of our Savior, suffering is a tonic we will all, at some time or another, be made to drink of. There is simply no getting around it.

I am going to have a running series here based on the suffering saint that will run as long as I can find good and solid writings of Winslow on the subject that will not only help me flesh him out a bit as a man, husband, and pastor, but will also, I pray, help some of you who may be in a season of trial, burden, pain, and suffering of some form.

There will be no end date for this series. It will run until I simply can find no more material.

May you be edified I pray.

Our Lord was sensitive to the pain of domestic slight.

It is marvellous to trace the perfect assimilation of His humanity to all the natural circumstances of ours. Was there no betrayal of sensitiveness to this peculiar form of suffering when He quoted the proverb as applicable to Himself- “A prophet is not without honor, but in his own country, and in his own house?” He was as a stranger among His brethren, an alien in His Father’s house.

They doubted Him- slighted Him- insulted Him. Jesus felt the neglect- and felt it keenly. His sensitive spirit was wounded. How many of the Lord’s people are drinking this cup of sadness, are enduring this form of suffering! The icy coldness, the studied slight, the marked neglect of those of your own house, whose confidence, affection, and sympathy you had not forfeited and had a right to possess, is a daily cross, chafing, wounding, fretting the spirit sorely. But your Lord and Master prepared you for this- teaching you the precept, and then enforcing it by His example “Do you suppose that I came to give peace on earth? I tell you, no; but rather division: for from henceforth there shall be five in one house divided, three against two, and two against three.” “And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household.”

How faithfully does our Lord here forewarn His disciples, that love to Him and a profession of His gospel would, in many instances, involve the weakening, if not the entire rupture, of those ties, the closest and the dearest, which bind us to earth’s kindred. The religion of Jesus is a separating religion; it has done but little for us if it has not severed us from the world, and quenched in us the spirit of the world, and separated us from all worldly association, and sympathy with the world’s followers, bound to us though they are by ties which we cannot and may not entirely sunder.

Oh, how extensive and subtle a snare is the world to a disciple of Jesus- to one desirous of living for eternity! Our relations are snares- our friendships are snares- our alliances are snares- our business transactions are snares- our necessary recreations of intellect and taste are snares- and our social and domestic enjoyments are often but pleasant bowers within whose foliage lurks the tempter. If, then, beloved reader, the Lord has given you grace to tread the narrow path of separation- shaded and secluded though it be; if you are called to witness for Jesus and His gospel against the world, error, and sin, surrounded by those with whom you sported in childhood, among whom your youth was trained, who are entwined with associations of later life the sweetest, and with memories of earlier life the most sacred and dear, and yet you are the object of alienated affection, frigid neglect, doubt, and scorn, because you love the Savior- Oh, do not be cast down, as though sonic strange thing had happened to you.

Your Lord and Master, for whom you suffer; suffered all this, and infinitely more, for you; and in sympathy and in love soothes and supports and suffers with you now.

I have mentioned before that I was first turned on to Winslow by a post written a long time ago by Joe Thorn. To this day I cannot remember exactly what post it was, but I do distinctly remember reading it on his blog and being completely blown away by not only the quote he had mentioned, but the fact that I had never heard of this Victorian Baptist Englishman with the funny name.

Needless to say, Joe is almost as big of a Winslow nut as I am (almost Joe, sorry!) and to further prove his love for the Big-O, he and his family have recently adopted this cute little 2 month old puppy mix and have named him Winslow!

I first heard about this through Joe’s Twitter feed and I just about fell out of my chair when I read in his tweet that they had named their new pup after Winslow. I’m sort of jealous because as a dog groomer, I not only love dogs but I had actually planned on naming our next dog Winslow! So needless to say, Joe stole my thunder.

But hey. That’s OK with me.

I just look at it this way. From now on when people ask him and his family why they named their dog Winslow, they will probably go home to Google it and wind up here at the Archive!

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Octavius Winslow descended from Edward Winslow, a Pilgrim leader who braved the Atlantic to come to the New World on the Mayflower in 1620. Winslow was ordained as a pastor in 1833 in New York and later moved to England where he became one of the most valued nonconformist ministers of the nineteenth century, largely due to the earnestness of his preaching and the excellence of his prolific experimental calvinistic writings. He held pastorates in New York City,Leamington Spa, Bath, and Brighton. He was also a popular speaker for special occasions, such as the opening of C. H. Spurgeon's Metropolitan Tabernacle in 1861. After a short illness, he died on March 5, 1878, and was buried in Abbey Cemetery, Bath.
For a more detailed biography on Winslow, please see our biography page.